Are you sure you can't use 485 for programming, Bernie? I believe DSLaunch allows you to specify node addresses when creating a DirectSoft comm link, and I can't imagine why they would do that unless DirectSoft could be used in a multi-drop topology. Maybe the PLC's don't support programming over the 485 and you have to have a 485-232 converter at each PLC. I'm even a little skeptical of that theory, because I think in a lot of the PLC's, it's just 485 and 232 connections to the same comm channel, so obviously if you could program over the 232 version of the port, the 485 connection shouldn't mind.